MBA After 10 Years of Experience: London Business School Admit with Average GMAT

Is pursuing an MBA after 10 years of work experience too late?

Many professionals assume that elite business schools prefer applicants with only 4–6 years of experience. While that may be true for some MBA programs, there are plenty of successful applicants with significantly more experience.

In this interview, Madhav Bhaskar shares how nearly a decade in investment banking and venture capital, combined with an average GMAT score and a carefully crafted application strategy, helped him earn admission to London Business School.

If you’re wondering whether an MBA after 10 years is worth it, this case study offers practical lessons on timing, GMAT preparation, networking with alumni, and presenting your career story effectively.

Case study profile at a glance

Feature	Details
Undergraduate Degree	B.Tech in Industrial Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology (Class of 2016)
Certifications	CFA Level I
Total Work Experience	~10 Years
Career Progression	Goldman Sachs (5 yrs): Operations to Commodity Structuring (Set up Singapore team)
	Venture Catalysts: Led Investment Team (150+ early-stage deals)
	VC Fund Leader: Invested in seed-stage companies
Standardized Test	Multiple GMAT attempts. Highest 645 (Focus Edition)
Target Programs	London Business School (LBS), Stanford MSx, and select elite global B-schools
Outcome	Admitted to London Business School (LBS)
Key Strategy Drivers	20+ Alumni coffee chats per school, structured approach to GMAT preparation, demonstrated leadership, quantified impact of achievements

MBA After 10 Years with an Average GMAT

How a Goldman Sachs & VC Professional Got into London Business School

Avinash: Can you please share a little bit about yourself, your background, your qualifications?

Madhav: I’m Madav. I’m technically an engineer. I finished my engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology. I did Industrial Engineering back in 2016. And then, right out of college, I joined Goldman Sachs, worked there for five years, and set up a team in Singapore.

Then, after five years, I moved to the VC ecosystem, joined Venture Catalysts, grew there to lead their investment team, and did over 150 early-stage venture capital deals there. So that’s been my journey so far, and now I lead investments at a VC fund where it’s my own fund. We invest in seed-stage companies.

Avinash: Now, that’s certainly a very interesting and eclectic path. How did this transition from engineering to the deep world of finance happen?

Madhav: So, it’s a very interesting one, actually. It started in the second year of college, when I did an internship, and that’s where I realized I had more inclination towards business and finance as compared to core technical engineering subjects.

Even the electives I took in college after that were more business-related, and I did whatever best I could there. That kind of helped me when Goldman Sachs came to our college for campus recruitment.

During my interviews, I brought this fact out that I had a strong interest towards the finance world and business, and that’s how I moved towards Goldman. I joined in an operations role, but then, through navigating internally and networking with a lot of people within the organization, I found my way into commodity structuring. So, that was a very interesting journey for me.

In parallel, I also cleared CFA Level I to strengthen my basics of finance because I realized I needed some technical finance education as well. So, that kind of helped me transition from core engineering to finance.

And then, once you’re at Goldman, I think it’s one of the best organizations anyone in the finance industry could work at, and that only deepened my interest in finance overall.

Why an MBA: Madhav’s Decision to Pursue a Global Business Degree

Avinash: So, given this background, when did the seed of an MBA get initiated and why?

Madhav: To be honest, I wanted to do an MBA after three or four years of experience itself. So, this was around 2020 when I initially decided that I wanted to do an MBA. At that point, it was for a very different reason. I wanted to move geographies, and I wanted to move industries. I wanted to get into core investment banking back then.

But somehow, at that time, the VC ecosystem was also very intriguing, and I ended up getting an opportunity that typically people get after an MBA – to move into the VC ecosystem.

That happened through networking and understanding the VC landscape in India. So, I decided at that point that I would take up the VC role first, get some more experience in the VC space, and then go for an MBA.

And that is when, after 5-6 years of experience, I reached out to you guys around three years back, where I thought, now I definitely want to do an MBA to get more of a global perspective on things and really understand how the financial ecosystem works from a global lens. I started the journey there, and it’s been quite a journey from there till now as well.

GMAT Preparation Strategy: Madhav’s Journey from Challenges to Success

Avinash: And I’ve been a witness to it. So what can you tell us about your GMAT prep journey?

Madhav: So, I think I used to try to juggle a lot between work and studying and preparing for the GMAT. I was always under the impression that the GMAT was the only main important thing that I needed to crack to get into a good B-school.

And thanks to you and the team at MBA Crystal Ball, I realized that it is one aspect of it. I need to treat it with a lot of importance, but I also need to work on other aspects of my profile.

So, while I was preparing initially, I started in a very haphazard way. I went for some random coaching classes which claimed to be training for a 100 percentile score, etc. I think those seemed a little gimmicky to me.

Eventually, I met this professor. He’s a math professor, Mr. Avinash. Coincidentally, even his name is Avinash.

He helped me a lot in preparing for the core concepts of Quant. Over time, I realized that the GMAT is not a math and English test. It is a business school test that kind of readies you for business school, or checks for your readiness for business school.

So, he taught me Quant from a very different lens. I always took pride in the fact that I’m an engineer, I know math very well, so I’m going to ace the GMAT. But Avinash sir really helped me ace the GMAT by understanding which questions needed to be attempted in a time-constrained manner, and how I needed to really go deeper into the concepts to answer questions quicker.

Similarly, for Verbal as well, I had an individual teacher. She taught at this institute called Jamboree. She helped me a lot with the verbal side of things.

Over my preparation journey itself, the GMAT changed from the GMAT to the GMAT Focus Edition. So, there were a lot of changes. Being in that guided environment really helped me a lot in preparing for the GMAT.

Avinash: Interesting. You hit the nail on the head there. Yes, GMAT is not a math and verbal test. It is a test for readiness for business education.

Choosing the Best MBA Consultant for London Business School: Madhav’s Experience with MBA Crystal Ball

Avinash: Now, when it came to working with a consultant for your MBA application journey, why did you decide to work with MBA Crystal Ball? What was the thought process behind that?

Madhav: So, again, through my GMAT journey, I realized that getting into a B-school needs to be a structured approach. It cannot be haphazard. It should not be done randomly.

I had a couple of friends who had seen some good success. One of them got into INSEAD. Another one got into Columbia. Both of them recommended MBA Crystal Ball as a good MBA admissions consultant for London Business School, INSEAD and the other elite business schools I was targeting.

I had spoken to a lot of consulting firms before I zeroed down on MBA Crystal Ball, actually. The thought was that I wanted someone who could tailor-make this application process for me.

Typically, a lot of consultants work with people who have two to four years of experience. That’s the sweet spot. I needed someone who could work with someone having my kind of experience.

Even in our first conversation, I remember you had mentioned that I should look at some additional courses as well, like the Stanford MSx program. That kind of widened my horizon in terms of understanding that these are also opportunities that can be explored by someone coming with my kind of experience.

I also needed someone who could help me with something that wasn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of formula. When I spoke to you and to Manish, I realized that we could really go deep into my profile.

During the initial brainstorming sessions as well, I realized that I was able to unlock parts of my application which I hadn’t even thought were so important to my application.

So, this was all in the very initial stages. After that, I zeroed down and decided that I really wanted to work with MBA Crystal Ball because I felt that there was a precedent of good results.

At the same time, I also felt that comfort working with you as well as Manish to really understand and go deep into my journey and apply that in the application.

Crafting a Powerful MBA Application: Turning Career Transitions into a Compelling Story

Avinash: So, given your higher work experience, from a storytelling perspective, and from what you wanted to cover in the essays, what were the main thoughts in your mind? What do you think were your strengths that we were able to present in the application in a compelling manner?

Madhav: I think what became very important was:

1. Crafting a Cohesive Career Narrative

The career transitions – moving from engineering to Goldman, then into commodities, and then to venture capital. All of it, on prima facie, looks very good, but to really join the dots and have that seamless connection between why I moved was very important.

Obviously, intuitively, I did think of these things when I was making those moves, but when I was applying and initially trying to write these essays, I was just putting them down as facts. Okay, I did this, worked at Goldman, worked in the VC space.

So, I think one thing that stood out was the transitions across these roles, right from an early stage to a later stage in my journey.

2. Showcasing Leadership Through Diverse Experiences

I had a lot of international experience – working in Dubai, setting up the team in Singapore, and leading teams across various parts of my journey. That was, I think, brought out very well in the eventual application.

3. Quantifying Achievements to Demonstrate Impact

If you’re just stating facts and not quantifying things, they may not have the same impact. Through my conversations with you, it came out very well that the same thing, when said as a fact, may not be very impactful.

But when I quantified the same thing and thought about it in a more elaborate way, it came out very powerfully.

I think someone reading the application was also able to understand the gravity of what I had done and achieved in my life. So, bringing out those achievements effectively was very important, and that worked out very well for me.

London Business School Interview Experience: What Madhav Learned & How to Ace Yours

Avinash: Where did you interview, and any standout experiences from the interview?

Madhav: So, I applied to very few schools, actually, because I was looking for a very specific kind of experience. I applied only to LBS, Stanford, and a couple of more schools.

For LBS, my interview was at the office of the interviewer. This was a gentleman who is an LBS alumnus himself.

Actually, I always thought of communication as being a stronger suit for me. I thought I could communicate my ideas very well, but it was a little nerve-wracking going into that interview experience.

It was at an LBS alumnus’ office. He’s the CEO of a listed company, a very senior professional who came from the 2008 or 2010 batch of LBS.

Generally, I speak to a lot of HNIs and ultra-HNIs on an ongoing basis as part of my job, so it wasn’t that big of a hassle. But the questions were very specific – why this particular school, why do you feel this is going to be the best fit?

I initially thought of it like a work interview, but it became very conversational over a period of time. They also had specific nuances in the interview. There was a case study that I had to present, which was like a 10-minute exercise. That was very different from any other interview I had done.

These were typically the parts of the interview that were very interesting. Otherwise, it was predominantly a double-click on my entire resume, as well as whatever I’d written in my application, just to know me a little better and understand if I’ll be a good fit for the class in general.

MBA Application Advice from Madhav Bhaskar: Lessons for Future Applicants

Avinash: So, any tips for future MBA aspirants? Anything that you would like to share?

Madhav: I think it’s very important to talk to a lot of alumni of the schools that you’re looking to apply to. This worked out very well for me.

In fact, I got super passionate about LBS after visiting London. I know that is not an option for everybody. Some people might be able to do that. If you can, nothing like it. But otherwise also, people are very receptive on LinkedIn if you reach out to alumni.

I had almost 20 coffee chats with the alumni of the four schools that I applied to – 20 coffee chats each. So, I really spoke to a lot of alumni to understand how their journey was and what worked for them really well.

I think once someone gets really passionate about a school and they are able to see how it’s going to impact their career, everything else starts falling into place.

The passion for the GMAT also comes naturally. My final attempt happened very quickly because I was super excited to go to LBS. I had taken a couple of retakes on the GMAT as well. I was super fascinated by the kind of potential and the unlocking it would serve for me.

So, I would say:

1. Talk to a lot of alumni and understand why it is a great fit.
2. Get in touch with the consultant, the GMAT prep coaching, and try to do it in a very structured manner
3. Don’t overemphasize any single part of the application because I think the letter of recommendation, the story, the SOP, the resume, and the GMAT all have a good amount of weightage. So, just getting stuck on one of them can be very time-consuming. So, don’t do that.

Hopefully, that could be the learning that someone could take from my experience.

Avinash: These are indeed very relevant points that you brought up. Madav, thank you so much. It was great talking with you, and we wish you a lot of success with your MBA journey and, of course, realizing your post-MBA career goals.

Madhav: Thank you so much, Avinash. It’s been a pleasure, and best of luck to everyone reading.

How MBA Crystal Ball Can Help Your MBA Application Journey

We hope you found this interview helpful. At MBA Crystal Ball, we’ve helped thousands of applicants get into elite business schools, like London Business School, INSEAD, M7, Top 10 as well as other leading global business schools, often with scholarships.

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